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Saturday, February 8, 2014

Rookie defenseman Jon Merrill had played in 30 NHL games this season before tonight and hadn’t scored a goal. When his first goal finally came tonight, though, it was perfect timing for the Devils.

Merrill scored 2:34 into overtime to give the Devils a much-needed 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Prudential Center.

“You always dream about that kind of stuff when you’re a little kid and I think after 20 games went by and I hadn’t scored those dreams kind of went away a little bit and I just worried about playing,” Merrill said of finally scoring his first NHL goal. “I knew it would come when it came and tonight it did.”

Merrill is the first player in Devils' history to score his first NHL goal in overtime. The Devils are now 8-5 in games decided in overtime this season and have had eight different players score the OT winners - Travis Zajac, Jaromir Jagr, Steve Bernier, Eric Gelinas, Andy Greene, Marek Zidlicky, Patrik Elias and Merrill.

On tonight's winner, all four Edmonton defenders ended up on the right side of the ice when Adam Henrqiue won a battle for the puck in the right corner and Michael Ryder came away with it. Merrill, who left was alone on the left side of the ice, said he yelled to Ryder to pass it to him.

“I was calling for it,” he said. “I saw everyone go down to Rydes there and he made a great play.”

After getting the puck, Merrill stepped into the left circle and fired a slap shot past goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov on the blocker (short) side.

“I was just looking for an opening and Bryzgalov came out and made himself big and I knew I could beat him blocker side and I just tried to get it on net and give it a chance,” Merrill said. “Blocker side, I knew it was there, but I had to make a good shot and it beat him.”

Merrill’s teammates mobbed him in celebration afterward. They were happy to see him get his first.

“To be honest, I didn’t know it was him until I looked up,” Henrique said. “I just saw it go in and then we had a race for the puck. I remember mine. It’s one you’ll remember your whole career. So, I feel great for him. He’s been great for us since he’s been up. He’s a great guy to have in the room and it’s nice to see him finally get it.”

Henrique said he beat defenseman Peter Harrold to the net to pick up the puck for Merrill and then gave it to captain Bryce Salvador, who gave it to Merrill.

“I’m happy for him,” Salvador said. “He’s been playing great for us and playing important minutes and for him to get rewarded like that it was a special moment for him.”

Merrill expected that he’d receive some congratulatory texts after the game, but, “I’ll probably reach out to my father first and foremost.”

Before he was called up, Merrill, 22, had two goals and seven assists in 14 AHL games with Albany this season after putting up one goal and seven assists in 12 AHL games at the end of last season when he left the University of Michigan following his junior year to turn pro.

Although the Devils’ 2010 second-round draft pick had shown flashes of offensive skill in the NHL, he had just four assists to show for it before tonight. He said it did not bother him, though, that he hadn’t scored.

That’s something that every player wants to do to contribute and score goals, but there’s other ways they can do that and help your team win and I felt I was doing some of those things,” he said. “So, to score is just a bonus.”

Still, he admitted it was exciting to see his shot go in tonight.

“It felt pretty good to see it go in and to hear the crowd for the first time,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”

Merrill was on the ice in overtime, head coach Pete DeBoer because he deserved to be there.

“We rewarded him for the game he played,” DeBoer said. “He might have been our best defenseman tonight through 60 minutes, so it was appropriate that he was out there.”

Merrill played 31 shifts for 20:49 in ice time, which was more than every Devils defenseman other than Andy Greene (22:07) and Peter Harrold (21:38), and his goal was his only shot on net of the night.

DeBoer believes that though it hasn’t shown in statistics yet there is more offensive upside to come from Merrill.

“When you talk to the people in Albany, they rave about him on the power play and some of his offensive instincts,” DeBoer said. “So, he’s definitely got those abilities.”

Although Merrrill said he’s been trying to concentrate on other parts of his game, DeBoer said it hasn’t been a case of him playing it safe on the offensive side of the puck.

“He’s here because he’s playing smart and he’s picking his spots,” DeBoer said. “He’s not playing safe. He’s a smart defenseman that is picking his spots when to move to puck, when to join the rush. That’s what being an NHL defenseman is. It’s not standing there going end to end every shift.”

***

DeBoer said goaltender Cory Schneider was “excellent, outstanding” again tonight and will start again Saturday night when the Devils play their final game before the Olympic break in Washington.

Schneider, who made 19 saves tonight and gave up only a first period goal to Taylor Hall on a 2-on-1 rush, said he hadn’t been told yet if he’d start again Saturday, “but if it’s me again, I’ll be ready. Again, it’s a really important game, so everyone has to be ready to go.”

It will be the sixth consecutive start for Schneider, who is 7-2-4 with a 1.43 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage in his last 13 starts.

Martin Brodeur has not played since he was pulled after the second period of the Devils’ 7-3 loss to the Rangers at Yankee Stadium on Jan. 26. Brodeur will head into the Olympic break with just one start in the team’s last nine games.

***After they blew leads in their previous two games and lost in overtime, this was a significant win for the Devils. They climbed back within three points of a playoff spot and picked up at least one point for the fourth game in a row (2-0-2).

After losing 3-0 in St. Louis on Jan. 28, they had set a goal of winning their final five games. They haven’t been able to do that, but still have a chance to earn eight of a possible 10 points in those five games.

“We kind of made an emphasis on these last five games here,” Schneider said. “We’re four down, one more to go before the break and we’ve got six (points) out of eight, so if we can find a way to get two more tomorrow night, it will be a pretty good streak here going into the break and, hopefully, set ourselves up for the home stretch when we come back.”

***

After beginning the game on the first line with Dainius Zubrus and Jaromir Jagr and scoring the Devils’ first goal 11:01 into the game, center Andrei Loktionov ended up back on the fourth line in the third period.

In fact, after playing 4:21 in the first period, Loktionov played only four shifts for 2:15 in ice time in the second period and only two shifts for 1:24 in the third period. Loktionov had a bag of ice taped to his left wrist after the game, which he said was from a slash he took on a faceoff. When I asked DeBoer after the game if Loktionov was OK health-wise, he said he was and offered no other explanation for his reduced ice time later in the game.

Loktionov was happy to get the goal, which was his first since Dec. 4 against Montreal, ending a 15-game drought for him.

“It’s feeling a little bit better to me because I haven’t scored in a lot of games,” Loktionov said.

The goal came after some good passing by Jaromir Jagr and Bryce Salvador, who found Loktionov alone in the right circle with basically an empty net to shoot into.

“It was a nice play by Jags,” Loktionov said. “I was driving to the net and two guys went on him and he passed it to Sal. Sal made a good decision and passed it to me and it was wide open.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.